A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Joining Floss @ Troc, Broc & Recup for a Pause in Advent
and
Mary @ the little red house for Mosaic Monday

Celebrating 100,000 Normandy Life page views with some images and collages of Christmas past.

Wishing all my friends and followers a

very Merry Christmas

and

a Peaceful, Prosperous & Healthy New Year.

See you in 2013!

Sunday Walk - Happy Birthday Mr Ben!

Yesterday, 15th September, Mr Ben celebrated his 12th birthday, that makes him 64 human years old according to the Pedigree Dog Age Calculator, and a Senior Citizen!
If you'd like to know how old your pampered pooch is, in human years, click here.
So, today we went for a fairly long amble through the countryside and I stopped to take photographs, along the way, to remember this special weekend by.
He kept up very well despite being somewhat deaf and with restricted eyesight, although a couple of times he did get turned around and started heading back to the car.

The bramble bushes are quite heavily laden with blackberries but it will be a few weeks yet until they are ripe enough to pick, making bramble jelly is a lovely way to spend an afternoon in the kitchen.
The maize which around here is grown as cattle fodder will be harvested soon, many of the fields around our house have already been done.
In the corner of the maize field I spotted an abandoned piece of ancient farm equipment rusting and moldering away quietly.
Hunting season is in full swing and we encountered a group during the walk, without mishap.
When we arrived home I was surprised to see another group stalking the field next door where the cows graze, shortly afterwards whilst preparing lunch I heard a single shot which seemed to come from field behind the house.
Not sure who was in the group and I thought the field had a sign like the one pictured below, but maybe they had permission from our neighbour to be in there?

Private - no hunting

It's always a good feeling to know that Fleur is on guard on days like these!

Joining Mary @ thelittleredhouse for Mosaic Monday after many months of being awol

 Click on the link below to see who else is taking part this week.

and Our World Tuesday

Sunday Walk - Town & Country

Clockwise from top left
L'Olivier (Florist)
 Patisserie (little cakes & chocolate eggs),
 L'Olivier (pavement display),
fresh mussels & crabs from Grandcamp

Easter Sunday dawned wet and cold in our small corner of Normandy.

fish seller from Grandcamp,
 patisserie window display,
communal gardens
L'Olivier pavement display

After breakfast we headed to a local town to do a little shopping.

little white bulls (not!)
yellow ajonc
my favourite pony
wild primroses

On the way home we stopped off to visit some four legged friends we hadn't seen in a while.

I couldn't resist this pretty white hydrangea and the little pot it came in
and the SP bought little cakes for afternoon tea.

Sharing these peeks into la vie quotidienne with

 The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays #95

and

Mary @thelittleredhouse for Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday - Daylily collage

I spotted this beautiful, creamy white daylily in the garden of l'Authentique, a restaurant in our local market town when we had lunch there last week.
Unfortunately I got my shadow in there too, bottom right!
C'est la vie!

Kicking off the week by joining Mary for her Mosaic Monday gathering @the little redhouse with this simple collage and Shakespeares sonnet number 99.

To quote the bard:

The forward violet thus did I chide:

Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,

If not from my love's breath? The purple pride

Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells

In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dy'd.

The lily I condemned for thy hand,

And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair;

The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,

One blushing shame, another white despair;

A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both,

And to his robbery had annexed thy breath;

But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth

A vengeful canker eat him up to death.

More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,

But sweet, or colour it had stol'n from thee.